


Limbo

by Jena Bartley (jenab)



Category: Alias (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Canon Compliant, Gen, Genderbending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-05 15:34:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1823518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenab/pseuds/Jena%20Bartley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She is living in limbo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Limbo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Medie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/gifts).



The first thing Will did when she moved to Wisconsin was cut her hair.

The hairdresser called it a pixie cut, explaining how such short hair only served to enhance Will’s facial features. Will studied herself in the mirror, ignoring the hairdresser’s mournful look at the pile of curls she had sheared off, lying on the floor. Will really didn’t care what the style was called, all she cared about was she looked different now with her hair cropped so short there was no trace of curl.

She was Joan now, a woman who had no use for long hair on a construction site. Long hair was difficult to stuff under a hard hat and only got in the way. Joan didn’t have curly hair, streaked blonde by a California sun. There was no Frank Calfo in Joan’s life who loved to run his hands through her long hair.

The hair cut felt freeing, the first step in the transformation of Wilhelmina Tippin into Joan. And for almost two years, Will thought she had done an excellent job of becoming someone else and leaving her life as Will behind her. Until the day her dead, best friend showed up at the construction site.

Seeing Sydney again and helping her out made Will realized she had not successfully become Joan. She was only an actor playing a role, biding her time until she could toss off her role and reveal herself to the world. That was not the way to be in the Witness Protection Program because she couldn’t just be an actor, she had to become Joan, a new person with a history and memories of her own.

After coming back to Wisconsin, Will started to let her hair grow again, putting up with the hassle of tangled curls and struggling to stuff the heavy weight of it under her hard hat. The guys teased her mercilessly at her struggles with her hair constantly coming undone, but Will just smiled and flipped them off which only made them laugh harder.

Sydney asked her to stay in LA, had asked why go back to Wisconsin when her identity of Joan was undoubtedly compromised and Will, herself, had said she was tired of running. Will couldn’t tell her the truth because it would only hurt Sydney.

She didn’t want to come back to LA because coming back meant re-entering the world of spies, half truths and betrayal. It wouldn’t matter if Will no longer worked for the CIA or had anything to do with the spy world, she knew she would still be drawn back into it. Sydney would do her best to make sure Will would be safe, but that hadn’t protected either of them from having their friend, Frank, killed and replaced by a double agent.

Will wasn’t ready to face that again, however she also didn’t want to lose herself in another identify again. Being Joan was akin to living in limbo right now; neither Will Tippin nor someone new. It was a safe place for the moment until Will could decided to stop running and face going back to LA and Sydney’s world or finally take the final step and disappear completely into the Witness Protection Program. And right now, Will wanted to be safe and sheltered from the horrors she had gone through.


End file.
